12 Dec 21 to Bob - Wrong spending on modern day follies to deepen the Climate emergency

Dear Bob

Thanks for the Eventbrite email with more details from WMCA that we have to talk about on Tues eve.

Net zero means we carry on spewing out greenhouse gases ad nauseam in the vain hope there is some way to get them soaked up in the dim and distant future.  IMPOSSIBLE.  There ain't enough trees and never can be to soak up, anyway only the carbon dioxide.  Carbon capture and storage means yet more GHG emitted in the process of trying to get it captured.

Zero carbon means only one greenhouse gas out of many.  Methane is much more potent and more of a problem than CO2 with permafrost melting.  We want zero of all greenhouse gases, of course.  Again, IMPOSSIBLE because we are all totally dependent on and addicted to finite fossil fuels to get even drinking water pumped to our homes.  We are screwed, snookered.  BUT ...

Therefore, we have to get the CA councils to use their money to urgently put PV on every E, W, S (and, perhaps, even north, I now realise!) roof in the West Midlands to give some electricity to the building beneath and stored in batteries for evening use.

I want each and every one to write and phone and speak to the decision-makers to get them to try and understand the importance of their spending decisions.  And certainly not this:-

WRONG SPENDING ON FOLLIES TO DEEPEN THE COVID/CLIMATE EMERGENCY

Manchester and the Black Country/Brum could have had all their commuter trains back on their closed (now destroyed) railway lines, plus electric buses running directly on roads with Fare-Free Public Transport and, bus priority bus lanes and traffic lights and, the heavy rail network could have been modernised and improved to make for a regional railway network as good as London and the SE, for much less than the cost of Metrolink or Metro “bus on rails” trams.  Indeed, for a fraction of the price.

Hundreds of millions of pounds have been diverted away from these more sensible priorities, to rebuilding the tram network that Manchester completely destroyed in the 1940s.  In Manchester, 262 Kms were destroyed by 1950 to make way for trolley buses and diesel buses.  Source: Wikipedia

The Black Country and Birmingham destroyed their tram network in the 1950s and are now spending the next 20 years continuing to rebuild it to the tune of, at least, £15 billion of greenhouse gas emissions for 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops to be completed by 2040.  This, to replace buses and trains when both need updating to lessen not deepen the climate emergency as tram spending is doing! And, anyway, we all have to minimise travel and all spending. (and I'm doing my best with my own!)

All the best